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Ghostbuster Sues MySpace For Allowing Another Ghostbuster To Set Up A Website With A Similar Name

from the who-you-gonna-call? dept

Fri, Jul 9th 2010 3:08pm — Mike Masnick

Who you gonna call? Perhaps a better lawyer. Apparently, a self-professed "ghostbuster" who calls his business "Ghost Scene Investigations" is suing MySpace because some other "ghostbuster" is also using the same name and set up a MySpace page about it. The actual lawsuit claims both copyright and trademark infringement:

Of course, as noted in the article, the copyright claim against MySpace makes no sense for a variety of reasons, starting with the fact that you can't copyright the name of a company. Second, MySpace is clearly protected by the safe harbors of the DMCA. The guy even tries an "inducement" claim against MySpace, which only serves to highlight how ridiculous the concept of making secondary copyright infringement against the law is: people will keep trying to stretch it. As for the trademark claims, as Eric Goldman notes in the article linked above, you can't trademark a descriptive phrase, and while there isn't a DMCA-style safe harbor for trademarks, courts will often effectively create a safe harbor for third parties unless there's clear evidence that they were really complicit.

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Filed Under: copyright, ghostbusters, trademark
Companies: myspace

10 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2010 @ 3:53pm

Don't the ghosts have any say in all of this? Shouldn't it be considered inhumane to attack ghosts? Do ghosts have rights? I suppose you can think of it as kinda like a pest controller maybe. Do mice and insects have rights? Should ghosts be classified similarly or differently?

I wonder if ghosts sue each other.

But seriously, a ghostbuster?
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BearGriz72 (profile), 9 Jul 2010 @ 10:58pm

who-you-gonna-call?
Ghostlawyer?
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- Anonymous Coward, 10 Jul 2010 @ 8:06am
  
  Re: who-you-gonna-call?
  I wonder if there is a ghost jail too. Maybe the cemetery? Is it guarded by ghost prison guards?
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PaulT (profile), 10 Jul 2010 @ 12:50am

So, the guy sets up a service that blatantly capitalises on another trademark by changing one letter (come on, Ghost Scene Investigations? GSI? How does that name exist unless it's to capitalise on CSI?) and then complains that someone else sets up a service that add another letter. Hypocritical, much?
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- Anonymous Coward, 10 Jul 2010 @ 7:14am
  
  Re:
  I wonder what kinda evidence they look for? Can they do DNA testing on a ghost's hair?
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  - Robin Smith (profile), 10 Jul 2010 @ 10:51am
    
    The best documentary....
    ...on ghost hunters was aired by the South Park team.
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Etch, 10 Jul 2010 @ 9:11am

New laws
Maybe instead of copyright laws, we should push for laws that ban "services" that capitalize on the naive..
We can get rid of "ghostbusters", "psychics", Tarot card readers, and Credit Card insurance services all in just one stroke of a pen!
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- Anonymous Coward, 10 Jul 2010 @ 6:09pm
  
  Re: New laws
  I'm sure the ghosts will be thrilled :)
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  - Artful Dodger, 11 Jul 2010 @ 8:57am
    
    Re: Re: New laws
    LMFAO! This is epicness. Yeah, I'm sure the ghosts will be thrilled :D
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gh, 13 Dec 2010 @ 4:09am

;l
"Apparently, a self-professed "ghostbuster" who calls his business "Ghost Scene Investigations" is suing MySpace because some other "ghostbuster" is also using the same name and set up a MySpace page about it."
Where I have been able to read about it?
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